Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 97. (Budapest, 2002)

NÉMETH, ISTVÁN: A Generous Gift or a Healthy Compromise? Some Contributions to the Background of the Donation of a Painting by El Greco

One only has to decide wheteher the terms of the compromise agreement are good enough for the state? Regarding that, I rest assured that the terms that Mr Nemes and me has finally agreed on are satisfactory. The case is the following: Mr Nemes will transfer a remaining part of his former collection to Munich where he is residing for the time being and where he has bought a house in which the generosity of the Bavarian government allows him to maintain a large flat for his works of art - whilst he is lacking a proper flat in Budapest. It is possible that he has other intentions with the pictures, as well, perhaps he will sell part of them — and if so, he will be quite right in his decision, for the major part of them are goodfor nothing else than fetching money that would buy better ones. In the whole collection of him (which is constituted mainly of middle-rank and weak pieces), the most precious objects are the three paintings by Greco, among which he had donated that indeed magnificent Magdalen, which will be a gem and a celebrated sight of the museum's and the accession of which to the museum s collections meant a really unexpected luck for the state. At the same time, Mr Nemes has put the most important pieces of his Hungarian collection on permanent loan, applying only for a licence to export some of his Munkácsy pictures (a selection that does not include the ones I found to be of special importance), claiming that he would like to have them at home, and maybe to loan some of them to the Pinakothek where Munkácsy is rather poorly represented. Nevertheless, I am positive that Mr Nemes would not be reluctant to surrender their exportation if he would be asked to do so. When someone who owns a collection that is (let me lay stress upon it) generally of no major importance, donates a magnificent piece among the crème de la crème of it, a work that a German art historian has once claimed to be worth travelling to Budapest (see Zeitschrift für bild. Kunst, 1911 );

IH and when the very same person, over and above that, puts on permanent loan all his domestic paintings that bear significance from the aspect of our national art instead of taking them with him to abroad - then he, I am convinced, has already done more than what used to be requested in similar cases, and I could hardly believe that there would be any place around the world where such an offer would not be readily welcomed, even ifit would be made by an entirely unknown and meritless person. Nevertheless, it has to be stated that Marcell Nemes (and this very fact by no means can be ignored) has won undeniable distinction in the past. He has enriched the state collections by a whole series of outstanding works. He has imported a great number of paintings into Hungary, the aggregated value of which comes to at least thirty times as much as that of the collection he intends to export now: let us not forget that the entire Baron Herzog collection is virtually a creation of Nemes '. He has purchased hundreds of paintings from Hungarian artists, by which he gave an impetus to purchasing in a time when there was no mood for buying yet. He has founded an independent gallery 8 For Schubring's article, see n. 5 above.